Joe Holleman | Post-Dispatch
Political correspondent/columnist
In these politically turbulent times, leave it to the U.S. Postal Service to unite opposing factions under a common banner:
Dissatisfaction with the U.S. Postal Service.
Over the last 15 months, most every U.S. congressional member who represents the ӣƵ area — both Democrats and Republicans, from both sides of the Mississippi River — have lambasted postal service in the metropolitan area.
The newest member of the unhappy stampers sodality is U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, a Republican from Murphysboro, Illinois. His district includes Monroe County and parts of St. Clair County.
In a letter sent last week to the Postal Service’s inspector general, Bost asked for an audit of the ӣƵ Processing and Distribution Center in Hazelwood.
In his communique, Bost notes that his constituents in Southern Illinois have ongoing complaints about mail delays, misdirected deliveries and lost items.
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The letter claims that the problems have persisted despite postal management’s promises to improve operations following a 2022 audit.
“When seniors fail to receive their medications on time or working families are hit with late fees for bills that never came, it’s clear something is broken,” Bost said.
The complaints against the ӣƵ center go back to at least early 2024, when U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and then-U.S. Rep. Cori Bush wrote to then-Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to complain about shoddy mail service.
Then in September, four Republican members of Missouri’s U.S. House delegation, whose districts cover the ӣƵ metropolitan area in Missouri, complained about postal service.
U.S. Reps. Ann Wagner, Town and Country; Jason Smith, Salem; (now-retired) Blaine Luetkemeyer, St. Elizabeth; and Sam Graves, Tarkio, DeJoy and asked for major changes to fix “unreliable mail service in eastern Missouri.”
The letter specifically asked the Postal Service to audit the mail sorting and distribution center in Hazelwood.
The lawmakers also are concerned with how the USPS’s plan to will affect delivery to rural areas.
Then only one week after the Missouri quartet complained, U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield, Illinois, joined 18 other lawmakers to ask the post office to reconsider a plan the rural-delivery changes.
Budzinski, whose district includes parts of Madison and St. Clair counties in Illinois, said the plan to save money can’t “come at the expense of rural residents who ... depend on the Postal Service for medicine, food, paychecks and bills.”
Also complaining about rural operations at the time was Hawley, a Missouri Republican, to complain about rural mail delivery.
And those complaints were logged before snow and ice storms in January, which prompted both new and renewed complaints.
Then in April, U.S. Sens. Hawley and Eric Schmitt sent a letter that repeated the request for an audit of the ӣƵ operations.
It was signed again by U.S. Reps. Wagner, Smith, Graves, and Luetkemeyer’s newly elected Republican successor, U.S. Rep. Bob Onder of Lake Saint Louis.
And let’s not forget the two Democratic U.S. senators from Illinois, Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, who also have signed onto letters questioning the Postal Service’s performance and planning.
Tara L. Jarrett, a USPS spokesperson, said the service responds to any letters received by federal lawmakers.
Jarrett went on, however, to point out that the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General is a separate agency and makes all decisions about conducting audits.
And, she said, “We make every effort to comply with recommendations provided to us by the (inspector general) during any audit they conduct.”
As to the latest complaint, Bost said his constituents simply deserve better service.
“If the system fails them,” he said, “there must be accountability.”
MAIL MORASS: The U.S. Postal Service is running out of cash, and recent congressional hearings have put a spotlight on its operational problems. David Nicklaus and Jim Gallagher argue that Congress needs to provide some short-term funding and then start working on long-term structural reform.
